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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27651995">Jab Ye Dil Rota Hai</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/AvaCelt/pseuds/AvaCelt'>AvaCelt</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>2020 Bollywood Prompt Fills [8]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Black Clover - Tabata Yuki (Anime &amp; Manga)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst with a Happy Ending, Falling In Love, Found Family, Friends to Lovers, Gen, Inspired by Bollywood, M/M, unrequited Julius/Zara, unrequited Noelle/Asta, unrequited Secre/Lumiere, unrequited Vanessa/Yami</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 20:41:53</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,902</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27651995</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/AvaCelt/pseuds/AvaCelt</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>It was the irony of all ironies – the Black Bulls knew Asta was in love with Liebe before he did. [post-Spade Arc]</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Asta/Liebe (Black Clover)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>2020 Bollywood Prompt Fills [8]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1969198</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>71</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>IAmStoryteller's Best of Black Clover Fic Rec</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Jab Ye Dil Rota Hai</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Title translates into "when this heart weeps."</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was the irony of all ironies – Asta's friends knew he was in love before he did.</p><hr/><p>Gordon noticed first, because Gordon was the most observant of the group. Asta was unlike anyone he'd ever met, so the young man didn't possess the sweaty palms, furrowed eyebrows, and fleeting glances that would plague the usual sort. Asta was different. More than that, Asta's deepest thoughts were just underneath the surface, hidden beneath veils of booming laughter and rippling muscles, a subtle hint in a sea of smiles. That alone gave Gordon grounds to investigate.</p><p>The stiff spine was the most surprising, and at first, Gordon had assumed poor Asta was just constipated. He'd debated getting his friend some herbal medicine so that he could rest easy. Gordon didn't want him to end up like Captain Yami, perpetually in the restroom, perpetually whining about the woes of tummy trouble.</p><p>He changed his mind when he realized Asta only stiffened when their new friend was out of his grimoire. It was their new friend with the glistening black skin and powdery white face. Liebe also had the most magnificent horns, horns which he'd begrudgingly let everyone in the base touch and pat because Nero's were too small and because she didn't quite like the touchy-feely stuff.</p><p>Liebe, however, seemed to enjoy it much more than he let on, and so they indulged him accordingly.</p><p>Charmy threw him a feast on the night of his official arrival to the base because it was the first happy evening they'd seen in weeks. Their captain had been rescued, Henry had built Nacht a room of his own, and Asta had a new friend.</p><p>It was a grand affair. Charmy made her best dishes, Vanessa opened her most treasured wines, and Zora's party tricks brought life back into everyone's eyes, even if Captain Yami ended up sitting on a stinkbug.</p><p>Liebe sat quietly for most of the party, but that was to be expected. Gordon was a great listener, so he'd noted every detail of the stories Asta had proudly told him about his demon friend. Asta had regaled him of the stories of his and Liebe's binding ritual on their journey back from Spade. Asta had called it friendship-binding. Gordon liked friendship. He thought it the most important and exhilarating thing to exist in their world.</p><p>He didn't forget the twinkle in Asta's eyes when he'd gushed about shaking hands with his new friend, the demon in the grimoire. Gordon didn't think he'd ever seen Asta so happy before.</p><p>That same fondness seemed to translate into Liebe's eyes, even if he was mostly silent. He looked to be the brooding type, a little like Gauche, but not an isolationist like Nacht, and though somewhat acerbic like Noelle, not <em>nearly </em>acerbic enough to offend anyone. Their new friend seemed to be in that happy middle amongst the three, quiet but present, as if reflective of every moment passing before his eyes.</p><p>If anything, it seemed to Gordon that Liebe just <em>preferred </em>to sit quietly. That was fine with him, as Gordon could see the warmth and affection in his eyes became stronger with their revelry. Liebe could remain in that brooding middle, the one where he blushed furiously when they patted his horns, but still grumbled beneath his breath about clingy humans. Gordon could accept that.</p><p>Liebe laughed for the first time when Magna slipped on Luck's chocolate wrapper, went tumbling into Noelle, who screeched and blasted Magna with a wave of water that eventually planted Magna against the wall, soaking wet and dazed. Gordon almost missed the new sound, what with the raucous laughter and Magna slightly concussed, but Liebe's laugh was different. It was a loud, scratchy thing, perhaps even a little shrill, but so full of life and love that Gordon balked in his seat, his hat lying limp in his hands.</p><p>Nobody else seemed to notice, but Gordon did.</p><p>And so did Asta.</p><p>Asta had stiffened when Liebe began to laugh.</p><p>Asta only stiffened when Liebe's attention was turned towards something else, eyes focused elsewhere, his back to Asta, black wings and black skin glittering like diamonds in the night while Asta stood motionless, in awe.</p><p>Asta had stiffened when Liebe began to laugh.</p><p>And that's how Gordon realized that his young friend was in love.</p><hr/><p>Vanessa noticed because she'd spent ten years giving Yami the same look, and gotten nothing in return.</p><p>It took her a little bit longer than Gordon, but she caught on. A month after they'd brought Yami home, Vanessa was in charge of leading some squad members on a clean-up mission on the border of Heart. It was a simple job, and one that would see them all home by nightfall. Vanessa wrote down the plan because she was still learning how to lead on her feet, and until she could call out orders at the drop of her magnificent hat, she would continue to use the little notebook Finral had gotten her when she'd become the team's interim captain.</p><p>She was reading over her notes when she realized that Asta was staring. Not at her, of course, but at the demon flying about, helping to direct the other squad members to where the lumber, stone, and tools would need to go as they worked to rebuild the little town that had lost to a mana storm. Vanessa had glanced up by chance, Rouge purring on her shoulder, and yet her eyes landed on Asta, as if it were fate.</p><p>She wondered why someone so kind and selfless had to suffer this particular kind of pain. She'd been suppressing her own for a decade now, camouflaging it with her alcoholism, and sometimes her trips to the brothel where the men were all the same, and she could pretend for the night that she was loved and wanted by the one she desired the most.</p><p>She wondered why Asta had to suffer the same pain. She tilted her head up and gazed at the astonishing black creature fluttering its great wings against the pale blue sky. Liebe was unlike any monster she'd ever seen before, and Vanessa had seen quite a few in her lifetime.</p><p>She wanted to ask, wanted to know – why him? Why not Noelle? Why not Yuno?</p><p>She didn't have to ask though. A moment later, Liebe swooped down with a powerful gust of wind that blew her great hat off her head and into the daisies at her feet. She didn't bother with her hat or her rich hair that had ended up in front of her face. She simply kept her attention on the two people some yards away, a human and a demon, bound together for life.</p><p>Liebe gave Asta a handful of stargazer lilies.</p><p>And Vanessa understood.</p><hr/><p>Love was soft; love was slow. Yami knew that much, even if he'd never personally experienced it.</p><p>The shrimp was good at hiding it. He'd been loud and boisterous when he'd lost the feeling in his arms, but he'd never faltered from his goal, not once. Lives had been at stake, and failure simply hadn't been an option. The love of one's self was one thing, but loving another – Yami didn't know if Asta had ever truly experienced that before now.</p><p>The runt didn't shy away from much, but when Yami found him considering a handful of stargazer lilies in the light of a single lamp in their empty kitchen in the middle of the night, Yami knew it was serious. He'd only ever seen few meditate on an object this critically before, and he never thought <em>Asta </em>would be a part of that small cohort.</p><p>And yet, there was the resident shrimp, placidly plucking at the pink and white petals, thinking things when there shouldn't have been anything but hot air in that head of his.</p><p>Any other day, Yami would have teased the boy and threatened him to spill, only because Yami was a nosy bastard deep down, but not tonight. Tonight, he simply tip-toed away, leaving the runt to his thoughts.</p><p>Love was a process, after all.</p><hr/><p>Liebe was a person. He wasn't a project Asta could work on, or a goal Asta could work towards. Liebe was a person, even if he was a demon with horns and pointy teeth, so Asta <em>couldn't</em> charge forward without a plan.</p><p>Noelle figured it out when one night, Liebe was too tired to take his meal with the rest of them, and had to eat where he slept – in the bed above Asta's.</p><p>Henry had fashioned the bunk beds for them when Asta had proudly showed off the bracelet on his hand, that which linked him to the demon for life. Noelle had looked on with barely contained glee in her eyes because Liebe had been <em>cute</em>, almost like a little animal friend who only <em>looked </em>dangerous, but was actually very sweet.</p><p>She hadn't been wrong – Liebe <em>was </em>sweet. Liebe was kind. Liebe worked just as hard as Asta, even if he grumbled, grunted, and groused along the way. Liebe was quiet, but he wasn't stupid. He spoke when it was necessary, not when it was convenient, and he kept his thoughts to himself.</p><p>Noelle could never hide her feelings, much less her thoughts. She envied the demon. She envied his poise, his reservedness, and the aura of mystery that seemed to surround him at all times.</p><p>One could argue that she <em>shouldn't </em>have felt this way, since Nero was the same.</p><p>But Nero did not look to Asta with the kind of affection Noelle harbored for him. Nero loved Asta much like a mother loved her child, or perhaps how a bird loved its chick. Noelle loved Asta like how Vanessa loved Yami, but Noelle failed where Vanessa was scathingly efficient. Vanessa could hide anything behind her drunken smile and glassy eyes, whereas Noelle could barely hide her blush, much less her affections.</p><p>Liebe walked with his lips sealed and his heart locked away, and all Noelle witnessed was one creature pining after the other. Liebe was better at it, of course. Liebe was quiet; he was strong. He was strong in the way pillars were strong, sturdy and imposing. He barely spoke about his past, much less about his feelings, and yet his gaze seemed to perpetually linger on Asta, and when it wasn't, it'd harden with the kind of aloofness that Noelle both loved and loathed.</p><p>Asta was loud, but he was hesitant, an edge of stiffness haunting his every step because perhaps forever was a bit too long. She thought it was doubt at first, but then she'd started noticing the shifts in his smile, the way he'd stiffen when Liebe touched his arm to instruct him to calm down, when his eyes lingered on Liebe's back, his wings, the band around the demon's wrist that promised that they'd be together forever.</p><p>Noelle figured it out one rainy night after a long battle, too few brooms to bring them all home without getting wet in the storm, Finral passed out in Zora's arms after exhausting all of his magic, and Henry back at the base. Yami, Magna, and Secre had all walked with the rest in solidarity, because what were friends for, anyway? When they got home, Charmy whipped up a large pot of stew, rice, roast beef, and eggs in under two minutes. Finral snapped awake with the smell of roasting meat.</p><p>Liebe was too exhausted from the battle, so Asta had carried him back to the base on his back, and when they'd gotten home, tucked Liebe into the upper bunk that belonged to him.</p><p>Later, when Charmy went to make a plate to send up to their comrade via one of the many sheep bustling about, Asta gently shook his head and took the plate from her. Noelle watched him heap piles of rice, eggs, and beef onto separate plates, before pouring stew into porcelain bowls, and grabbing two jugs of water. He made his way up the stairs to his and Liebe's room without spilling or dropping a single thing.</p><p>Noelle didn't need to know what happened afterwards, because it didn't matter. All that mattered was that Noelle and the rest of the Black Bulls ate their dinner at the long table, while Asta dined with his beloved upstairs.</p><hr/><p>Love wasn't always loud and all-encompassing, Zora had learned. Sometimes, it was subtle, like the feelings the Wizard King had, had for his father, feelings he'd only come to learn about after snooping around the King's private rooms while he was busy being chased by the mushroom man. Sometimes, it was toxic, like the poison that was slowly killing the witch from the inside out. Oftentimes, it was unrequited, like the birdwoman's.</p><p>And sometimes, it was fated.</p><p>Zora knew Asta had made the contract out of duty to his kingdom, to his squad. Any other man would have seen a demon-binding ritual as a sacrifice of one's best years, and of their autonomy.</p><p>But not Asta.</p><p>Duty-bound he may have been, but even duty could create bonds. Asta had created a bond of friendship, and friends they'd been, until that friendship became something more.</p><p>Zora saw it much like a book, one that moved slowly but surely, saw each moment like it was a chapter, and every chapter led up to the inevitable conclusion – the one where the human and demon fell in love.</p><p>Zora had seen and learned about enough bad endings in his life to know that love was the greatest prank of them all. His love for his father hadn't saved him from being betrayed and murdered by his own squadmates. Love hadn't saved Noelle's mother from dying from Megicula's curse. Love hadn't saved the first Wizard King from turning to dust in front of the sobbing birdwoman.</p><p>At first, he'd assumed that love wouldn't do anything for the human and the demon who seemed to fit together like two sides of the same coin. He even suspected that they'd eventually fight again for dominance, because who would want to be forced into a union with another <em>forever?</em></p><p>But this wasn't one of those endings – not when Zora started reading the footnotes, not when he started connecting the dots.</p><p>Asta and Liebe weren't like the Wizard King, a fool in gold and velvet, a coward who couldn't tell a peasant that he was in love with him, a coward who couldn't protect his beloved or look after his beloved's orphaned child. Asta and Liebe weren't cowards. If anything, Zora thought they were heroes.</p><p>It happened a year after they'd brought Yami Sukehiro home. They'd just finished rescuing a noblewoman from an actual, fire-breathing dragon who also turned out to be her shape-shifting lover, so then the Black Bulls had to rescue the noblewoman andher lady dragon lover from the <em>real </em>enemy, which turned out to be high taxes and anti-dragon sentiment, which then led the Black Bulls to smuggle the pair out of Clover before Damnatio and his lackeys found out.</p><p>It was all in a day's work, and they'd just gathered around the bonfire to eat Charmy's roasted pigeons when Zora saw that Asta was gripping Liebe's hand in his own, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, like their hands were born to be linked together, forever.</p><p>Zora would have thought he was thinking too deeply into matters if he hadn't caught them kissing some hours later. Arm in arm underneath the moonlight, Asta's arms were wrapped protectively around the lanky demon whose claws were tangled in Asta's ash grey hair. It wasn't the kind of kiss you witnessed on the street between shy teenagers learning to love, or grizzled elders who were beyond public displays of affection.</p><p>It was the middle of the night, and Zora had simply walked outside to take a stroll in the cool air before turning in for the night. He hadn't expected to find a runt and a demon passionately kissing beneath the moonlight like they'd just survived a war.</p><p>Zora smirked. Perhaps the past year was a war in it of itself, a series of battles that culminated with a woman and her dragon, and an escape into Heart where Undine and the Queen accepted creatures of all kinds.</p><p>Perhaps the war was finally over, and Asta and Liebe were finally happy.</p><hr/><p>“You did <em>what?” </em>Charmy hissed.</p><p>“I maaaaaaaaaade theeeeem oooooooone biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed,” Henry said pleasantly.</p><p>“But they're still falling in love! We can't push love!! It has to go slowly, naturally!!!”</p><p>“Buuuuuut IIIIIIII saaaaaaaaaaw theeeeeem kiiiiiiiiissiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing laaaaaaast niiiiiiiiiiiight!”</p><p>“Kissing doesn't automatically mean <em>relations, </em>Henry you bastard,” Yami added, as scandalized as Charmy.</p><p>“Kiiiiiiissiiiiiiiiiiing iiiiiiiiis theeeeee fiiiiiiiiiiirst steeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep,” Henry retorted with a bright smile.</p><p>“At least neither of them can get pregnant,” Vanessa sighed with relief.</p><p>“...... Do we know that for sure?” Gauche asked finally.</p><p>The Black Bulls sans Asta and Liebe turned to Gauche with narrowed eyes, and said in unison, “huh?”</p><p>“Do we know for sure that demons can't get pregnant?” Gauche snapped, averting his eyes and trying to stifle his growing blush.</p><p>“... oh my god,” Charmy wheezed.</p><p>“HENRY!” They all screeched.</p><hr/><p>“I love you,” Asta whispered softly into Liebe's skin, leaving kisses down his pale neck, his hands locked with Liebe's.</p><p>“I love you too,” and Liebe meant it.</p><hr/><p> </p>
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